Ladislav Vanek

Ladislav Vanek (19 June 1906-5 October 1993) was a leader of the Jindra section of the Czechoslovak Resistance during World War II.

Biography
Ladislav Vanek was born in Olmutz, Moravia, Austria-Hungary to a family of Czechs, and he worked in the police force of Czechoslovakia before its annexation by Nazi Germany; he was a member of the Czech Social Democratic Party. Vanek became a leader of the Czechoslovak Resistance during World War II, serving as a leader of the Jindra organization. In December 1941, Vanek and Jan Zelenka-Hajsky met with government-in-exile agents Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis in Prague, and they plotted to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, a task achieved in late May, 1942. On 4 September 1942, Vanek was arrested by the Gestapo in Prague and was forced to betray the resistance, helping to convict members of the Sokol resistance. Vanek was held at the Gestapo headquarters in Petschk Palace until the end of the war, and he worked for the Ministry of Education after the war. He died in Prague in 1993.